Fostering Conversations with Utah Foster Care
Utah Foster Care guides real and raw conversations about parenting for bio, foster, adoptive or blended families to increase understanding of issues we all experience as families. Utah Foster Care's mission is to develop innovative strategies to help recruit, train, and retain foster families.
Episodes
On this episode, we talk with Leadelle Parish about her regulation invention for kids, called Buzzy Bears. Leadelle discovered the calming effects of bilateral stimulation while managing her own chronic illness, she never imagined it would lead to the creation of the Buzzy Bear. Inspired by the dramatic improvements she saw in her grandchildren’s ability to handle stress and transitions, she set out to create a child-fr...
In this episode of Fostering Conversations, host Amy Smith welcomes Tami Jenny, Jenny, and Lexi to discuss the growing impact of the Care Communities program. Together, they explore how groups of volunteers provide meaningful, trauma-informed support to foster families across Utah.
Listeners will learn:- What a Care Community is and how volunteers support foster f...
“Every single child deserves a foundation. Every child deserves to know there’s someone there rooting them on, and every child deserves to know what it feels like to be loved unconditionally.” — Rob Scheer
Episode 74: Comfort and Care
What happens when a child enters foster care carrying everything they own in a trash bag? For Rob Scheer, it is more than a heartbreaking image. It is a reality he liv...
In this heartfelt episode of Fostering Conversations, host Amy Smith sits down with Ellie Barlow, a dedicated foster parent from a rural Utah community. Ellie shares her family’s remarkable journey fostering 22 children, adopting five, and navigating the unique challenges of raising high-needs youth far from urban resources.
From building a thriving support system in a small town to parenting children with trauma, autism, an...In this special Pride Month episode of Fostering Conversations, host Amy Smith speaks with Jessica and Giselle, a Utah foster care couple, about their journey into fostering and building a loving, inclusive family.
They share how a chance encounter at a community event led them to foster care, ultimately resulting in the adoption of their first placement and the addition of another sibling to their home. Their story highlights the...In this episode of Fostering Conversations, host Amy Smith welcomes back Laura from Foster Parenting to discuss her first book, First Time Fostering. Designed as a practical field guide, the book brings together real-world strategies, scripts, and community-sourced wisdom to support new foster and kinship caregivers.
Laura explains why she created a manual that caregivers can jump into by topic, rather than reading cover to cover....In this powerful episode of Fostering Conversations, host Amy Smith sits down with former foster youth Carlos Rios Redd to talk about lived experience in foster care, sibling separation, adoption disruption, resilience, and hope.
Carlos entered foster care as a baby, lived in more than ten homes, and experienced three adoptions. Despite repeated trauma and instability, Carlos shares how relationships, faith, and supportive familie...In Episode 69, Amy Smith sits down with longtime foster and adoptive mom Crystal Dukes for a heartfelt conversation about the real purpose of foster care: reunification. Crystal shares her family’s journey fostering more than 30 children, adopting through both private adoption and foster care, and developing deep, lasting relationships with biological families.
This episode offers a candid, uplifting look at what it truly me...In this episode of Fostering Conversations, host Amy Smith sits down with Michelle Ostmark, the Statewide Mentoring Coordinator for Utah Foster Care, to discuss the Utah Foster Care Mentoring Program and why it matters.
Michelle explains how the program pairs experienced foster parents with new or existing foster and kinship fa...
In this episode of Fostering Conversations, host Amy Smith sits down with Terumi Sagers, TBRI Specialist for Utah Foster Care, longtime foster parent, and adoptive parent. Together, they unpack the foundations of Trust‑Based Relational Intervention (TBRI)—a relationship‑centered, trauma‑informed caregiving approach developed by Dr. Karen Purvis and Dr. David Cross.
This conversation is filled with real‑life examples, practica...
Podcast: Fostering Conversations Host: Amy Smith Guest: Dave, Owner of Dave’s Auto
Episode Summary
In this heartfelt episode, Amy sits down with Dave Bell from Dave’s Auto Center to discuss his incredible journey of giving back to the community through Utah Foster Care and other charitable initiatives. Dave shares the deeply personal story of his mother’s childhood in an orphanage, how...
In this episode of Fostering Conversations, host Amy Smith talks with Utah Foster Care clinical support specialist and LCSW Les Harris about blocked care: why it happens, how it impacts foster parents, and practical steps to restore connection. Les explains how chronic stress can suppress the parenting response system, mak...
In this episode of Fostering Conversations, host Amy Smith welcomes Utah’s First Lady Abby Cox to announce the statewide launch of the Care Communities program. After a successful two-year pilot with Utah Foster Care, Care Communities are expanding across the state to provide e...
In this powerful episode of Fostering Conversations, host Amy Smith sits down with Sheri, a resilient young woman who aged out of Utah’s foster care system and is now thriving as a leader at Angels Landing Foundation. Sheri shares her deeply personal story from entering foster care at age 12 after bravely reporting abuse, to cycling through 13 foster homes...
In this episode of Fostering Conversations, host Amy Smith and co-host Tami Carson welcome Melina Moore, Utah Foster Care’s Volunteer Services Manager. Melina shares how individuals and organizations can support foster families across the state—not by fostering, but by volunteering.
Show Notes:
In this special Pride Month episode of Fostering Conversations, host Amy Smith and co-host Tami Carson (Director of Community Volunteers at Utah Foster Care) sit down with Adrienne, a longtime foster and adoptive parent and leader of the FLY Cluster—Fostering LGBTQ Youth.
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This week on Fostering Conversations, Amy and Heidi sit down with Rachel Garrett, Utah foster parent and founder of Common Thread, a nonprofit serving teens ages 12–18 who’ve experienced foster care or similar life circumstances. Rachel shares how a small community event grew into a thriving organization that now supports hundreds of teens through joy-filled activities, life skills workshops, mental health resources, an...
In this heartfelt episode of Fostering Conversations, host Amy Smith is joined by guest co-host Jennie Shepherd, Director of Recruitment, as they welcome Celeste Edmonds—Executive Director of The Christmas Box International and author of Garbage Bag Girl.
Celeste shares her inspiring journey from growing up in foster care to leading an organization that supports children in need. She opens up about the impact of The Christmas...
In this episode of Fostering Conversations, we welcome Laura, the force behind the popular Instagram account @FosterParenting! Laura shares her journey into foster care, from a spark of interest as a teenager to becoming a foster parent and content creator. We discuss the realities of foster parenting, the importance of trauma-informed care, and the many ways people can support the foster care system—even if they’re not...
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